Key to CyberSleuth's work is ferreting out the motivation behind "On-Line Anti-Corporate Activism," be it a "legitimate complaint" or "behavior influencing" (e.g., an "environmental group targeting an oil company, stock manipulation, revenge, mis or disinformation, fraud, [or] extortion"). Once eWatch figures out what's going on, it launches a "containment" by "neutralizing the information appearing online, [and] then neutralizing" the offending agent. "This may mean something as simple as removing a posting from a Web message board on Yahoo! or shuttering a terrorist Web site," says eWatch. "The objective is to not only stop the spread of incorrect information, but ensure that what has already spread is also eliminated."

The service boasts that it can tell companies what consumers and professionals are saying and reading about their services, products, industry, and competitors. "You'll hear rumors before they start to spread." WebWatch, a part of the service, "enables you to keep an eye on every Web site that affects your business"whether it is the competition, an activist group, a nosy government agency, plaintiffs, defendants, "or even your own site." For a big company, eWatch is cheap, starting at $16,200 a year.